Vintage Handbag Identifier

With your consent, Creed photos are sent over an encrypted connection to our Supabase Edge Function and read by Google Gemini. Kovus does not write creed photo bytes to storage or retain a copy after processing. Google handles the request under its own Gemini API terms.

If you decline remote processing, your iPhone is offline, or the reading service cannot be reached, the stamp is read on your iPhone using on-device text recognition instead. Either way, the app uses the recognised style and serial information to search its bundled catalogue. Photos you import from your library are only ever touched as a temporary copy, and temporary camera copies are deleted after processing.

If you choose whole-bag identification, up to four photos are sent over an encrypted connection to our Supabase Edge Function and processed by Google Gemini. If the first Gemini model fails or is unavailable, the same photos may be sent to a second Gemini model during the same request. The app asks you to confirm before any photo is sent. The photos are used only to identify the bag. For Coach and Louis Vuitton, that includes comparing the bag’s visible details with catalogue records. Kovus does not save the photo files, and the server clears their in-memory bytes after the request finishes.

Google handles API inputs and outputs under its own contractual retention terms. Until the change on 26 September 2026, Anthropic Claude could also process whole-bag photos under Anthropic’s own contractual retention terms. It no longer receives them. App versions up to and including 1.0.5 still name Anthropic Claude as a possible provider on the consent screen, and that wording is out of date. From version 1.0.6 the consent screen names Google Gemini alone. After you confirm a whole-bag request, the app saves one pending request, including its selected photos, in private local storage before attempting to send it. It clears this copy after completion or when you discard it. An interrupted or failed request can remain available for retry.

When a whole-bag identification finds only a family or era, or no catalogue match, the app may offer a broader search. It runs only after you confirm it. Up to four photos, from the scan or requested during the search, are sent over an encrypted connection to our Supabase Edge Function. Kovus does not save the photo files, and the server clears their in-memory bytes after each request.

Google Gemini reads visible details from the photos, such as the brand, shape, materials, hardware and markings, and later compares your photos with images from public web pages. SerpApi receives an exterior photo of the bag and runs a Google Lens search with it, and runs Google Search queries made from the details Gemini read. The service then downloads public web pages and images from those results to find comparisons. Those downloads carry no photos or account details. Google and SerpApi handle what they receive under their own terms and retention policies.

When the app offers a broader search, Kovus records the offer against the identification and its credit. If you start the search, Kovus keeps a search record so it can resume and avoid charging twice: the anonymous account identifier, SHA-256 fingerprints of the photos rather than the photos themselves, the details Gemini read, the search results and links, the comparison result, credit and search-usage records, and times. A search that does not finish expires within 24 hours. A daily cleanup deletes search records once 30 days have passed since the search ended, and unused offers 30 days after they expire. Delete my data removes them sooner. A minimal record that a search used a credit remains until you use Delete my data, so the same credit cannot be refunded twice.

When a broader search is offered, the app also keeps a separate copy of the scan photos on your iPhone, plus any extra photo the search asks for. It can use that copy for up to 24 hours after the scan. The app tries to remove the copy when the search finishes or you decline it, and clears expired copies the next time you open or return to the app. Copies can remain longer until cleanup succeeds. The app asks iOS to exclude these copies from iCloud and computer backups; iOS controls backup behaviour. Delete my data removes them from this app.

The app creates a random anonymous Supabase account so the service can manage paid entitlements and prevent abuse without asking you to sign in. For a creed read, Kovus keeps the anonymous account identifier, the request time and the processing cost, which are the records that enforce burst limits and the daily spending ceiling. A creed read does not spend a credit, and no model name is kept for it. For a whole-bag identification, Kovus keeps those same records plus the model name, the credit usage record, the house the service detected, the type of result and, when no match is returned, a reason code.

The completed result of a whole-bag identification is cached for 36 hours so that an interrupted request can be retried without spending another credit. The cached result is the response sent to your app: the suggested matches or family, the evidence listed for them, any characters read from the bag’s mark, the credit outcome and processing times. It is deleted once it is more than 36 hours old, the next time the service handles an identification, or sooner if you use Delete my data.

With the app’s default no-retention consent setting, Kovus does not store the bag photos, and keeps no creed text, extracted attributes or candidate results outside that cached result and the broader-search records described above.

In the app, open More and choose Delete my data to remove your anonymous account, associated app content, remaining identification credits and private collection stored on that phone. Minimal pseudonymous purchase-deduplication and security records may remain to prevent replayed purchases and abuse. If local cleanup is incomplete, the app reports it and retries. Copies you exported outside the app are not deleted. Apple keeps purchase records under its own policy, and eligible purchases may be restored through Apple.

Deleting app data does not cancel an App Store subscription. Cancel that in Apple’s subscription settings or it keeps renewing. Anonymous operational records otherwise remain only while needed to enforce limits, account for credits, prevent abuse, investigate failures and meet legal obligations. Apple, RevenueCat, Supabase, Google, SerpApi, PostHog and Sentry apply their own contractual retention periods to data they process for Kovus.

You can deny camera access in iOS Settings and still use catalogue features that do not require it. The in-app control is the primary deletion route. For access, correction or deletion help, email josh@kovus.dev. We may need an anonymous support identifier or transaction reference to locate the correct record without collecting your identity.